Adam in Mexico

We were finally able to put a trip together where Adam could accompany me to Mexico. We went down early Friday morning and hunted Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. Mid day Saturday we watched the BYU/San Diego football game. In my book, that's a pretty good day. We got a few pheasants, quail and a bunch of doves. Although Adam is not a "died in the wool" hunter, I think he can be talked into going again. The photo shows Adam with a some quail and a pheasant he killed on Saturday, and Kenny, the son of our guide, Rigo.

South Dakota, 2008

This wouldn't be my blog unless I have a few pictures of my latest hunting trip. My best friend, Gary Hadley, and I drove to South Dakota for our annual pheasant hunt. We drive for two days, hunt for three days, and then drive another two days to get back. Too much driving, too little hunting. If you are a hunter, and appreciate wildlife, it is a very interesting drive. We saw literally thousands of antelope, hundreds of deer, flocks of turkeys, and even a bald eagle.

My pictures include images of the first morning hunt, and some of my little house in South Dakota.

Gordon, we'll miss you

I lost a brother today, and my world has been diminished. Ever since he joined our family, Gordon Smart has had my love and admiration. He was one of the finest men who has walked this earth. He was a devoted son, a loyal brother, a compassionate father, a devoted husband, a favorite uncle, a good friend and a valiant leader. He was generous and without guile. He was my fishing buddy and my friend. My life has been enriched because of my association with him.

I will miss his corny jokes and his funny stories. I will miss the opportunities to sit and talk with him about his latest fishing trip or the accomplishments of his children. I will miss his phone call on my birthday and the birthday songs he would sing to me. I will miss his wisdom, his sincerity and his humility. I will miss his laugh.

As I struggle with our loss, I can't fathom how his family will deal with their lives without Gordon. I can't find satisfactory answers to my questions of "why now, and why Gordon?", but I have to trust in God's wisdom and hope that my questions will be reconciled. The only comfort I presently have is that Gordon lived his life in such an exemplary way that he will be weighed in the balance and not be found wanting.

I heard a song by Jeff Bates that seems appropriate for how I feel. I've modified a couple of the lines, so my apologies to the songwriter.

If there ever was a morning when the fish might bite, it would be right now.
Any other time we'd have had our lines cast out.
Sippin' on a soda, castin' for those trout,
Why couldn't today be like that?

I wish this was a riverbank instead of a graveyard,
Wish we were sittin' and fishin' and this wouldn't be so hard.
It was my favorite thing that we used to do, but now we can't.
I wish you were here, I wish this was a riverbank.

I remember the day that we were casting out of float tubes.
I got a big bite that almost yanked the pole out of my hand.
Well you jumped up and grabbed a net and we both almost fell in.
Yeah we got wet, but we got him.

I know you wouldn't want me sittin' around being sad.
We both know better than that.
So I'm leaving now and gonna head on out and try to catch a few
and while I'm there I'll cast a few lines for you.

I wish this was a riverbank instead of a graveyard,
wish we were sittin' and fishin' and this wouldn't be so damn hard.
It was my favorite thing that we used to do, but now we can't.
I wish you were here,
I wish you were here,
I wish this was a riverbank.

God bless Gordon Smart, and God bless his family.

Arts and Crafts

I decided I wanted a better knife sheath for my bone-handled hunting knife, and I wanted something to look like it might have belonged to an Indian. I made an inner sheath, then covered it with an outside layer of thinner leather, then added the bone beads, horse hair and silver cones, etc. When I showed it to Adam, he said it looked like it belonged to a gay Indian. He's just jealous.

Things to Come

This picture was taken during Steve and Sunny's recent visit to California. She is holding J.R. and Casey's new son, Ethan, and Sam and Charlie were none too happy about sharing their mom. In a couple of weeks, this will be their reality as Steve and Sunny's new baby daughter, Gracie, will be born the first week in September. Good luck Sunny. You're going to need it!!

Sage's Big Day

We recently travelled to Utah to be with Sage for his baptism. He was baptized by his Grandpa Orvis and confirmed by Papa Dickson. It was a great day for all of us and we were so proud of Sage. We learned that his favorite bible character was Noah, and he was counseled by his grandmothers to try to be like Noah and to always be obedient to God's commands.

Read Your Thank You Cards

Nancy got a thank you card yesterday. It was from a lady in the ward that Nancy had taken the time to take to lunch as a thank you for her service as a pianist in the Relief Society organization. It was a simple act, but it required some time out of her busy life. The lady thanked Nancy for the personal time that she gave to her and concluded by saying that she felt the Savior's love for her through this act of kindness.

The reason I mention this, is that Nancy gets a thank you card about once a week from someone she has befriended or assisted. They all acknowledge that the small acts of service meant a great deal to them and let them know they weren't struggling with their problems alone.

Several years ago, a good friend of ours said that if you want to know how you are really doing in this life, read your thank you cards. What she didn't need to say, was that if you don't have any thank you cards to read, maybe you are not doing so good.

In my various callings in the church, I have had the opportunity to help others struggling with their challenges, which resulted in the occasional thank you card. Lately, I haven't been receiving many thank you cards, which has caused me to evaluate how I am doing as "my brother's keeper".

You might ask yourself, "When's the last time I got a thank you card"? If it has been awhile, perhaps you need to look around you and find a way to do a little good in the world today. It will bless your life and the lives of others around you.

Our Outer Banks Trip

As you visit the blogs of our children, they have been including photos and comments about our recent vacation to the outer banks of North Carolina. I won't bore anyone with more comments about the trip except to say that it was one of the finest vacations that I have had. It was great to be with everyone and to simply relax and enjoy each others company. It is so fun to see all of our grandchildren together at one time and to be able to spend some quality time with them. Knowing that Nana (Nancy) has posted a bunch of pictures, I am only going to post a few of my favorites. I believe that between Nancy and I we took about 400 photos. Mom took about 36o of them. I am already setting aside funds for the next trip.

OBX Images

Ruminations

It's graduation season again and we have been getting a few announcements from children of friends and relatives. I wish them well. As I am about to celebrate another birthday in a few days, I am also very much aware of how fast time passes by. With that in mind, I would like to share some words from Baz Lurhman, who created this song a few years ago. The wisdom of what he says, rings truer to me now than it would have forty five years ago.

"Wear Sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience... I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now, how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked... You're not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind... the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, please tell me how.

Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe, you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance...even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents; you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you hold on to. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geopgraphy and in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time it's 40 it will look 85.

Be carefull whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen..."

Mother's Day, 2008

On Mother's Day, last Sunday, Adam and I were preparing our evening meal while we were waiting for J.R., Casey and the girls to arrive. The door opened and in walked Sam, Lindsay, Reed and Max from North Carolina. We were blown away! It turns out that they have been planning the surprise visit for some time, knowing that they were coming to California to meet Lindsay's family to go on a family vacation to Maui. We had a wonderful, but short visit, before they had to leave for the evening. It was the first opportunity to have the "Dickson Boys" all in the same photo, so I am including a few flicks taken that evening.

I can't wait for the OBX trip. It will be so nice, and so noisy, to have all of us together. I have visions of the photographer we hired, pulling her hair out trying to get all of our clan to look at the camera at the same time. Can't wait to see all of you.

My Bucket List

I think that Nancy has determined that my "bucket list" includes seeing every Bass Pro Shop and Cabelas outlet in the Continental United States. Now that I mention it, she is probably right. We took a trip to Phoenix this weekend and in between seeing a Diamondbacks game, golfing, a lunch with Marti and Doug and their family, and a dinner with Reed, Marge, and Doug, Marti and Barbara, I managed to convince Nancy to accompany me to the new Bass Pro Shop in Mesa. We did some shopping for my upcoming Birthday and wandered the store adding to my wish list. There is also a new Cabelas in Phoenix, but alas, that will have to wait until next trip. Knowing that it is there, we will likely visit Phoenix again sooner than later.

More puppy flicks

The pups are getting old enough to start taking solid foods now, so all the work begins. In another 10 days they will be weaned from the mom and I will be doing all the work. I put them out on the front lawn for the first time and they weren't sure they liked it at all.

Puppy Love

Mao and Cathy visited recently and Hunter immediately fell in love with the new puppies. He always wants to see the dogs when he comes, but now that there are new puppies, you can't keep him away from them. They are just starting to get up and around and playing with each other. I have found a couple of them outside the whelping box in the morning, so the work will start pretty soon. I will begin to feed them in about a week and that's when the mom starts to let me take over. I am not looking forward to all the mess. I know that you are all feeling sorry for me.

Puppies Have Arrived

On Tuesday, Feb. 12th, I came home just before having to leave for the temple, to check on Billie to see if she had any pups. There were no pups, but she hadn't eaten hear morning meal, so I knew they were imminent. I worked at the temple until about 7:30 then I drove to the Long Beach airport to pick up Nancy from her Boston trip. We drove through a Wendy's for a quick meal then headed home. When we got there at 9:30 I checked on Billie. When I opened the door to the whelping box, there were puppies everywhere. She gave birth to 11 puppies!! There were 8 orange and white males, 2 black and white males, and a black and white female. The female is the one closest to the camera. Unfortunately, one of the orange and white males was either born dead or died shortly after birth. The remaining ten seem to be doing well, although a couple of the orange & white males are a little smaller. Billie seems to be a good mother, but she is a little goofy at feeding time. I have doubled her feed, but she still seems to be ravenous. For the next four weeks she gets to do all the work, then when I start feeding the puppies I get to do most of the work. Needless to say, Nancy is thrilled. I don't understand her. It seems that most women would love to have 13 dogs running around the house. I tried to give her pick of the litter for her Valentine's present, but she (not very politely) declined. Like the song says, "She didn't say no. She said HELL NO".

My Latest Project

A couple of months ago we were with the Smart family and Brooke had a knitting loom with her. I mentioned to her that I had been trying to find one of those looms in our area, but hadn't had any luck finding one. A few weeks later, when we were with Gordon and Rosemary for the National Finals Rodeo, Rosemary presented me with a gift from Brooke of the knitting loom I was looking for.

Today, I found some camouflage yarn and started to make my first knit stocking cap. It was so fun that I worked for about two and a half hours until I finished it. It is not high tech, but it is therapeutic. Guess what everybody is going to get for Christmas!

Uno Mas

I was able to sneak down to Mexico one more time this weekend. Gary Hadley and I went down Thursday night and we hunted all day Friday, then came home early Saturday morning. It would have been nice to stay for Saturday because they had a duck hunt planned, but I needed to speak at the Saturday afternoon session of our Stake Conference. My assigned topic was about providing service to our fellow man. We got to apply the principle on Thursday night near the end of our trip. As we were travelling on the darkest, roughest section of dirt road we came upon a man and a woman waving us down. We stopped and discovered that they had been drinking and had driven their car off of the road and almost into a deep canal. We drove them back to their car, assessed the situation, then drove to John Anderson's house and got a tow strap. We were able to pull them out with my truck after a couple of attempts, and got them back on the road. Hopefully, they didn't kill anybody on the rest of their journey.

We got a bunch of doves Friday morning and then hunted pheasants in the afternoon. We saw lots of pheasants, and Abby had a lot of good points, but most of the birds were hens. We managed to shoot three roosters, but John couldn't find the one he knocked down. That night we had a meal of pheasant, dove and sirloin steak. I cooked some sweet potatoes so that we had some vegetables. Real man food.

Give your babies an extra hug

Kirk & Jenny Hess buried their son Russell today. Kirk is the oldest son of Kyle and Karen Hess. He is one year older than Adam and is a new Bishop in the Santa Margarita Stake. When Kirk was nine years old, his father died in a scuba diving accident at Catalina Island. I was hired by Williams Insulation Company to replace Kyle and that is what brought us to our Lake Forest home. Kyle was also my brother John's brother in law as they both married sisters. Kirk's mother was pregnant with her fifth child when Kyle died, and raised her five children by herself, never remarrying.

Kirk married a great young woman and they had five children, a daughter and four sons. Russell was his third son and would have been 5 years old this month. The entire Hess family had gathered in Utah for one of those rare occasions when they were all together. They stayed at a family cabin and had a wonderful Christmas. They then went to Provo and stayed with a relative for New Years and went sleigh riding on New Years Day. Kirk and Russell came down the hill on a sled and at the end of the run Kirk had to steer the sled off the run to avoid hitting another child. The sled hit a tree and even though Kirk tried to protect Russell, he slipped out of Kirks hands and his head hit the tree, causing severe brain damage. Priesthood blessings were performed and he was rushed to the hospital, but did not regain conciousness. They buried him in his Power Rangers costume.

There is a song I listen to on the radio. It is about a man who lived to be a hundred and he was asked what advice he would give people about how to live their lives. His answer: "Don't Blink". By this he meant that life passes by so quickly that we shouldn't even blink because we will miss something important. After hearing about today's events with the Hess family, I think it is also a warning to not blink when it comes to protecting our children. They are so very precious and we have to do all that we can to keep them out of harm's way. Nancy and I pray for each of our children and our grandchildren on a daily basis. We pray that they will be safe and have joy in their lives and that they will make proper decisions. I remember a statement that I heard years ago. The message was that sending our children off to school or play without a daily prayer is like sending them out into a blizzard without a coat.

I pray that no one in our family has to experience what the Hess family did today. Give your children two extra hugs today. One for you and one for Nancy and I.

New Year's First Sunset

As the day was winding down on the first day of 2008, we looked out our back windows and saw this beautiful sunset. After the cold weather of Utah, we were happy to be back home and the warmer climate. As you are toughing out the winter in Utah, Boston and North Carolina, we hope that this doesn't make you too jealous. I'm convinced that every time they show the Rose Bowl Parade on January 1st, there are people in Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, etc., that start packing their bags to move here. I'm also certain that after experiencing the traffic on Southern California highways, they move back after a month or so. Last year 90,000 more people left California, than moved here. If the Governator keeps raising taxes, it will be worse next year.

Have a happy and prosperous New Year!